It is now time for intellectuals to stop treating media freedom as a shibboleth and instead broaden their mindset
The so-called “liberals”, Opposition leaders and eminent people have accused the Modi Government of crushing the media freedom (by various ways, for example, getting “inconvenient” journalists dismissed by putting pressure on media owners and stopping Government advertisements, among others). Soon after the house and offices of Prannoy Roy, the owner of NDTV, were raided by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in June, 2017, a meeting was held in the Press Club of India, which was addressed by Fali Nariman, the eminent Supreme Court lawyer, Arun Shourie, former journalist and former Union Minister and many others. They all waxed eloquent about media freedom and the need to protect it.
In my opinion, people, who speak for media freedom overlook the fact that it is not an end in itself but only a means to an end. The end must be to benefit society. So, if media freedom benefits society, if it helps in raising the standard of living of the people and gives them decent living, if it helps in creating a social order where people are happy and prosperous, this should be supported. But if it does to the contrary, which means if it harms society, it should be suppressed.
When I became the Chairman of the Press Council of India in 2014, I gave an interview to Karan Thapar on his show, Devil’s Advocate (available on YouTube titled ‘Media deliberately dividing the people: PCI chief’), wherein I explained my viewpoint.
Historically, the media (which was then only in print, and that, too, not as regular newspapers but as leaflets and pamphlets) arose in Western Europe, particularly in England and France, in the 17th and 18th centuries as an organ of the people against feudal oppression. At that time, all the organs of power were in the hands of the feudal authorities (kings and aristocrats). Hence, people had to create new organs, which could represent their interests. One of the powerful organs created by the people was the media. It represented the voice of the future, in contrast to the feudal organs of power, who wanted to preserve status quo. Great writers like Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Paine and Junius (whose real name we still do not know), combated religious bigotry and feudal oppression and were of great help in transforming feudal Europe to modern Europe.
In India, too, at one time, we had great journalists like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi and Nikhil Chakravarty, among others, who were opposed to social evils. Even today, we have great journalists, who almost single-handedly expose issues like the farmers’ suicides, something ignored by other journalists. There are others, too, who have consistently opposed communalism and for which, they had to pay a price. However, these are exceptions only. What about the rest of the media? What were they doing before the Modi Government came to power in 2014? Were they helping the people in their struggle to better their lives ?
As I mentioned in my interview with Karan Thapar, the Indian media, even before Modi came to power, largely worked in an anti-people manner in three ways: First, by diverting the people’s attention from real issues, which range from socio-economic (for example, poverty, record unemployment, appalling child malnourishment, widespread farmers distress, almost non existent healthcare and good education among others) to non-issues or trivialities like fashion parades, cricket (which is almost religion in India), petty politics (which has assumed a new low level). It was behaving like the Roman Emperors, who had said that if you cannot give the people bread, give them circuses. Second, by dividing the people. Third, by spreading superstitions and unscientific thinking like astrology. And what about paid news and planted news? These were very much active even before the coming of the Modi Government.
So, relative freedom, which the Indian media enjoyed in the pre-Modi period, was not used to benefit the Indian people but largely to harm them. Why then is the media (and the so-called “intellectuals”) lamenting over the suppression of media freedom? Even before it came to power, media freedom was being used in a manner detrimental to the people’s welfare. It is time now to stop treating media freedom as a shibboleth and an idee fixe. It is only a means to an end, and not a sacrosanct end in itself. The so-called “liberals”, “intellectuals” and champions of media freedom should develop some depth in their thinking. And if the Indian media wants to be respected, it must act like the European media when it was fighting against feudalism. Only then does its freedom deserve to be supported and only then will the people respect it.
(The writer is former Judge of the Supreme Court of India)
